One month update

Weight loss: Total -44 lbs, -24 lb since surgery

Wow! I can't believe it has been a month since I was sleeved. I can honestly say this past month has been such an emotionally and physically draining one. I get all weird typing this right now as I recall the struggles I have dealt with.

First is first though, the weight loss. My weight loss stalled for about a week and I could not understand why I stalled. I was so disheartened and it actually crossed my mind to think that I might be the first person to whom the surgery did not work for. I had to regroup and somehow break my stall. I went to my post op appointment at my surgeon's clinic and the Nurse asked me "Have you been exercising?" and I admitted... No I wasn't. Not only that but I also was not having enough protein which is hard to get in when you are on soft liquids and liquids and you don't like the taste of protein supplements. The exercise... I realize I was able to exercise 2 weeks after surgery and to be honest I was putting it off until I was able to eat food again. On liquids I just felt so weak and down in the dumps all the time that all my body wanted to do was get home from work and crawl into bed (more about this down in challenges). I went to the gym though, I have been all of once but it helped me lose 4 pounds. I broke my stall. Since it has been a month now, I  am able to eat real food again which has helped my mood so much. Among the things I have been having:

• vegetables
• greens
• soft chicken
• tuna
• beans
• soup 
• Oat bran (I eat it every morning for breakfast now since my stomach doesn't seem to like greek yogurt anymore)

Do I feel better now? yes. Being on broth sucked, I know hate chicken broth and highly dislike soup. Is there still challenges? Yes.

Since I started eating food now I know experience that feeling of fullness that everybody always talks about. People really don't exaggerate when they say you will have 4 bites and be stuffed. Is it a good thing? Absolutely. However, I have to eat so slow. And I know it seems like something that would be easy to learn but I haven't fully mastered it. I still catch myself eating too fast and then I feel so sick that I want to just throw up. 

Another challenge: Getting enough water in. I was so used to taking big chugs of water before surgery and I was pretty good about getting around 1.5 liters of water in a day. Now, on average I can only get about 1 liter in comfortably. One thing that I was reminded of is that my mouth really is bigger than my stomach right now. This means that if I take a big sip of water and swallow, as soon as it hits my stomach I feel pain. So I find myself trying to get water in as often as I can. 

Challenge: Energy level. Going back to work was both a good thing and a bad thing. I was able to feel useful again. The bad thing is that I had to find the energy to get out of bed and get myself to work.. On time. I think now I am back to normal after being back for 2 weeks. But it was hard. It sucks because I feel so frumpy when I roll into work with minimal makeup, bags under my eyes and clothes  that fits too big. Once I am there and in my cubicle engaging myself in something I feel okay though. For some reason my taste buds don't like my pre-surgery addiction which was Starbucks anymore. So  most of the time I have to either go without coffee or get McDonald's coffee because it seems to be the only kind of coffee I can tolerate. I won't say I was surprised though because I was warned that after surgery my taste buds would change and they have. My coworkers are really sweet and always ask how I am doing but I keep on getting comments that I look tired. It will get better though.

Heartburn: I have to be on continuous heartburn medicine because since my stomach is so small, the stomach acids have less space and they come up into my esophagus. For the most part I am okay but I have been waking up like at 3 AM with really bad heartburn and I can't get it to go away right away so I lose sleep over it. Again, something I was told would happen. To be expected.

Another thing, as I lose weight I notice that I become cold easily. So at night on top of the heartburn I also have trouble sleeping because I am cold. 

But out of this whole surgery process I still have reason to smile! I slowly am becoming more like the woman I am supposed to. It still feels good to be able to fit into clothes 6 sizes smaller than when I started this whole process. Also the group of people with who I surround myself with has been amazing.

Okay for pictures! I have been getting a lot of requests for pictures. I am so bad at asking somebody to take pictures of me so I just end up taking my own pictures. So the most recent picture I have is of me trying on clothes... Here it is. As you can see my face is the first body part that becomes more noticeable when I lose weight.

I will take more pictures and be sure to blog more often. A friend suggested that I blog more often... I will! (Thanks Crystal)

Until next time...

Mely <3